Jon Hotchkiss isn’t the first person to compare the explosion of communications technology to the Wild West.

The analogy remains apt, though, especially at a time when television is mutating through all kinds of delivery systems onto an ever-growing set of computers, pads, smartphones and other viewing devices.

Sherman Oaks-based writer-producer Hotchkiss is taking advantage of that new media potential by experimenting with a new kind of Internet-aimed reality program – one that, appropriately enough, is focused on conducting experiemnts.

“It’s a show that uses science to help people answer the kinds of questions that they’ve always sort of had and haven’t been able to figure out the answers to,” Hotchkiss said last week at the Air Hollywood Sound Stages in Pacoima, where his upcoming program “This vs. That” was trying to determine the quickest way of boarding passengers onto an airliner.

The show was staging an experiment proposed by Jason Steffen of the Chicago area Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. Seventy-two volunteers tried half a dozen different ways to fill the fuselage of a Boeing 757, including Steffen’s previously only computer-modeled theory. Comedians Mark DeCarlo, Chris Tallman and Brad Sherwood hosted the astrophysicist and kept up a snappy patter that will engage viewers when the episode goes online at thisvsthat.co in August.

“If you can marry the nuts and bolts of science with humor or brevity or an irreverent approach, I think it will attract more people,” said DeCarlo, who’s hosted such shows as “Indecision” and “Taste of America.”

“I’d like to think of us as the first regular, reality-based Internet series,” the producer said. “There isn’t anything like that yet on computers. Most websites are anthologies of little clips. We want to make a series that has the same scale, scope and size as a network show that you might see on The Discovery Channel, and bring it to people on their computers so they can watch it when and where they want.”

Like everything else in the ever-expanding online universe, reality-type programming is growing. “Second Act from Yahoo! News,” which follows mature people making changes in their lives, won the Reality category at Monday’s Webby Awards, which began including prizes for original Internet film and video content four years ago.

“Even someone like Simon Fuller from `American Idol’ had a contest kind of reality show called `If I Can Dream’ that was a nominee for us this year,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which puts on the Webbys. “But it definitely wasn’t the same premise as \, which actually sounds real cool.”

Someone like Hotchkiss’ motivations for exploring the Web’s possibilities probably differ from those of a megaproducer such as Fuller’s as well. By financing “This vs. That” with business partners and distributing it on the Web, Hotchkiss and company retain full ownership of the property and creative control. Nothing has to be agreed upon or shared with studios, networks or syndicators.

Of course, with that kind of independence comes budgetary limits and risks.

“I have colleagues who’ve done work for your Discovery Channels, your National Geographic Channels and your big network shows,” Hotchkiss, whose credits include “Politically Incorrect,” “My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad” and “Invasion of the Christmas Lights,” explained. “We know how to make a show, and while I don’t want to say that the distribution is a crapshoot, you do want to make the best deal for yourself. I thought the best way to do that was to have the show already made.

“In the perfect world, a big corporation will love the show and sponsor it, and my partners and I retain the ownership of the show,” Hotchkiss continued. “Second case would be we’d partner up with a distributor such as AOL or Yahoo or Hulu, who would take care of the advertising and we would take a percentage of that. And thirdly, in the right situation, I’m not opposed to it being a television series.”

Hotchkiss added that he’s making “This vs. That” at a price – six 20-minute episodes, on such topics as whether changing lanes or staying within the lines on the freeway gets you there faster, for under $25,000 – that’s less than a 10th what an hourlong network special would cost.

However frugal or clever an Internet production may be, there is skepticism about how profitable such a venture can be.

“I’ve got to believe that Internet TV and radio are going to be bigger than anything, as soon as they can figure out how to get it into people’s hands easier,” said investment expert Bob “Sully” Sullivan, whose television and radio “Big Biz Shows” are also, of course, streamed over the Internet. “Because honestly, we are such fish; we want to turn on the TV with a remote, we want to get in the car and just push a button, we want passive media. The Internet is not as mindlessly passive as it needs to be yet, I believe, to get adoptability.”

That said, Sullivan acknowledged that even if popularity only comes via the Web, money will follow.

“You know, good content finds an audience on the Internet,” The Webbys’ Davies said. “There’s really a ton of opportunity here because you don’t have to pitch someone at a studio to make it and fund it all that stuff. If you can get it made yourself and put it online and if it’s good, you have a pretty good shot at people wanting to watch it.”

However Hotchkiss’ experiment pans out, at least one person is delighted that it’s enabled him to run his own experiment. And really, what was the Internet created for if not to do just that?

“For me, the initial interest was in having someone want to do the experiment, getting people and an airplane and everything all in one place to do it,” Steffen said as he happily awaited the results (which you’ll have to go to thisvsthat.co in a few months to learn). “Jon basically has allowed me to design the experiment for the show. I’m willing to be shown that I’m wrong as long as it’s correctly done.”

Bob Strauss has been covering film at the L.A. Daily News since 1989. He wouldn't say the movies have gotten worse in that time, but they do keep getting harder to love. Fortunately, he still loves them.